Two Potential Top Five Prospects who are Enticing, but the Flyers should be hesitant about drafting this Offseason 

Photo Credit: Hockey Wiz Scout

With the NHL Draft Lottery now over, the Philadelphia Flyers finally know what position they will be selecting from in July. With that being said, there are two potential top-five picks that the orange and black should be hesitant about drafting this off-season. The reason for this is they do not want a repeat of the last time they selected inside the top five back in 2017. This, of course, was when the Flyers were rewarded the number two overall pick and chose to turn a blind eye on that year’s star prospect Nolan Patrick’s extensive injury history in light of the awe-inspiring offensive talents that he showed while playing for the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Brandon Wheat Kings the prior four seasons. Patrick’s skills were so impressive; despite him being misdiagnosed previously and thus being limited to playing in just 33 games that year while trying to play through what turned out to be a double sports hernia, he was still able to post 20 goals and 26 assists for 46 points which averaged out to him scoring an impressive 1.39 points per game. However, since being drafted, Patrick’s medical file has nearly tripled in size. After receiving several concussions during his four years playing in Philadelphia, Patrick was diagnosed with a chronic migraine disorder which caused this still 23-year-old player to miss the entirety of the Flyers 2019-2020 season. Coming back the following season, Patrick looked lost for most of the year, as if his head was in a cloud leading this writer to believe that he still was not 100% recovered. That season (which would be both his last and worst statically in Philadelphia), Nolan was once again unable to play a complete season. This time Patrick was limited to just 52 games in which he only was able to amass four goals and five assists for nine points while maintaining the second-worst plus-minus average in the entire league that year, posting a -30. At this point, the Flyers had finally had enough of the player that they thought would be their next face of the franchise and decided to move him in a trade. Relieving themselves of this fragile draft bust might have gone down as one of the wisest decisions that GM Chuck Fletcher has ever made if he didn’t have to agree to take on the albatross-like contract of another injury-prone player like Ryan Ellis to do so.

So, to prevent this kind of thing from ever happening again, here are two potential top-five prospects from this year’s draft who, while enticing, the Flyers should be hesitant to select.

David Jiricek

For Philadelphia, perhaps no prospect from this year’s draft class that will be available when the Flyers make their selection might be more enticing than the extremely physical 6’3 190-pound right-hand shooting blueliner David Jiricek. David currently plays in the Czech Republic’s top professional league, the Czechia, for the HC Plezen and is considered to be NHL ready by most scouts. Therefore, in theory, drafting Jiricek (who has the best shot of any defender coming out this year) would give the Flyers a sense of reassurance on the right side of the defense, given the uncertainty surrounding Ryan Ellis. Here’s the problem, though, while the only issue in David’s game currently is his short choppy skating stride (that will need to be opened up before he advances to the ranks of the NHL); he, like Nolan Patrick before him, has already sustained a significant injury that required surgery to fix. The only difference is that Jiricek’s injury was to his knee, which he suffered during the opening game of this year’s World Junior Championships when he collided with Canada’s Will Cuylle. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t care how good this kid is projected to be if he is only eighteen years old and has already had to go under the knife to have his knee repaired. Might I remind you that the Flyers just had to say goodbye to their former 2013 1^st round pick, 26-year-old defenseman Sam Morin who was limited to just 31 NHL games played in his career because he was unable to battle his way back from his third consecutive knee surgery?          

Joakim Kemell

Another player that the Flyers should look to avoid like the plague is the Finnish-born right-winger Joakim Kemell. This 5’11 176-pound natural scoring threat is hands down one of the best snipers in this year’s draft class. Gifted with the ability to rifle a puck in the back of the net with smoothbore precision and accuracy, there’s no way Kemell will not be high on most teams’ draft boards. At just 17-years of age at the start of this season, Joakim scored 18 points in the first 16 games while playing in the Liiga (Finland’s top professional league). This kind of production allowed Kemell to wear the coveted golden helmet (which is worn by the team’s current point leader) from what seemed like this season’s first puck drop and the honor of being named the league’s player of the month for October. However, this was one honor that Joakim could not relish in for long because Kemell situated a shoulder injury at the end of that same month. Thankfully, his injury did not require surgery, but it did keep him out of the lineup for an entire month of the season. Upon returning from his injury, Kemell didn’t look quite himself, which was more evident by his play at the World Juniors, where he seemed to get hurt again. This apparent injury or possible reaggravation of his previous one seemed to limit Joakim’s abilities during the second half of the season. Despite all that, Kemell was still able to finish his first season in the Liiga atop all other rookies in goals with a total of 15, but it was a far cry from the league-leading statics; he was on pace for at the beginning of the season.    

There’s no question that Kemell has all the intangibles to be a great NHL player one day soon, given his great shot, his stellar stick handling, and the unfathomable poise he possesses, which makes him appear as if he is a 10-year veteran out there. But, because of Kemell’s inability to match his production from earlier this season upon his return to play, if I’m the Flyers brass, there are still a lot of questions to be asked before I go out and utilize a top-five pick on this player. Is there more to this shoulder injury? Is it still bothering him? Did the JYP and their team Docs avoid surgery to benefit their place in the standings seeing that they knew a player of Kemell’s talents would be drafted at this season’s end? Or could the rest of the teams in the league have wised up as the season progressed and started developing better game plans to limit Joakim’s production against them? All these could be legitimate possibilities, but even if he’s now 100% healthy, if players in the Liiga were able to shut down this supposed young phenom so quickly during the second half of the season, is he as good as scouts say he is? In my mind, these are all questions that the Flyers must find answers to before deciding on selecting this player in this year’s draft. 

To put it simply, the Flyers have to get this pick right. Management needs to land a player who can come in and help this team as early as next season! Thanks to the lottery, Philadelphia was gifted the opportunity to find a successor to Giroux during the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. Still, they wasted it on a player who, although very talented, was riddled with injuries during his entire career in juniors. So much so that because of his ongoing battles with the injury bug, this 23-year-old player (Nolan Patrick) is no longer a Flyer. Now, with Giroux departed, the Flyers lack star power and are left with overpaid second-tier talent who, over the years, have become injury prone themselves, like Sean Couturier, Kevin Hayes, and Ryan Ellis. Therefore, Flyers management must make the right choice with this year’s 5^th overall pick. Both Jiricek and Kemell will be enticing options when the Flyers are on the clock in the first round, but they must resist the urge to pull the trigger on them unless they are confident that their health will not be an issue moving forward. For, if the team does select either one of these players and my premonitions become a reality, I fear the Flyers’ impetuousness will continue to haunt them for at least the next ten years. 

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